29/09/13 - Rocky Horror DIY

I love fancy dress.  If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed.  And my favourite kind of fancy dress costume is one which becomes a project.  I'm not a costume-renting kind of girl and  I avoid those cheap tacky costume shops like a polyester plague.  I always attempt to construct outfits from things I already own, whether that means a bit of thinking a bit outside the box or chopping up and reassembling various items of clothing.  Let us not forget the stylish monkey costume, evidence of which can be found here - you can do so much with a brown T-shirt and some hair bobbles.  There was a previous version of it which also involved a tail made of two belts.  God, I'm good.

No longer being a student means that I have infinitely less opportunities to break out the dressing up box so when I get the chance, I go all out.  And next week, I will be in my element.  I'm heading back to Hull to spend some of Freshers Week with my friends there who still have a year to go before graduation (those lucky people!) and while I'm there, we're going to see the UK tour of the Rocky Horror Show...which naturally means dressing up.  So I've decided to talk you through how I've constructed my DIY Magenta costume, for a chance to do something a little different on here.

In order to reduce the costs of this outfit, I'm not making a carbon copy of the original.  I didn't have a black dress which would be appropriate, so I've adapted it slightly to incorporate things that I already had.  Also, I am no kind of seamstress - I don't have the skill nor the patience to be really good at sewing.  Everything about this costume ended up being a little bit slapdash, but I think it's passable.

I used:
A plain black dress (about £8, H&M last summer)
An old white shirt (free, never underestimate the power of your father's wardrobe)
Lace/broderie anglaise edging (66p a metre, I got two just to be sure)
White ribbon (no idea where this was from, I just found it in my room)
A plain black headband (£1, Wilkinson)

For once, the vision I had in my head actually (sort of) came to life in front of me.  The collar from the shirt fitted fairly well inside the neck of the dress and the rest of the shirt material was plenty to construct an apron and maid's cap.  I even cracked out the sewing machine to make everything faster and a bit neater.

The maid's cap proved to be the trickiest part but using this clever little tutorial, it came out much better than I had expected!

While I realise that this post is maybe a little niche for most readers, it might come in handy if you're looking to whip up a Hallowe'en costume or if you too happen to have tickets to the Rocky Horror tour!  

If you'd be interested in a post about the make-up and hair I intend to pair with the costume to create the finished look, let me know in the comments!

26/09/13 - New Hair!

I get bored with my appearance really easily.  I think that's why I love buying make-up so much; every new lipstick or eyeliner holds the potential to create a completely different face for me to show the world.  Of all the parts of my body which suffer most from this boredom, my hair is the main victim.  I started dyeing it when I was nearly twelve and have only just now returned to my natural hair colour.  Despite this, I've had largely the same hairstyle for a long time now.  There was a point at which I'd just dyed my hair and was so terrified of getting my hair cut, that I got a piercing instead.  A fairly extreme reaction to the idea of having a few inches taken off.

This all changed about a month ago.  My hair colour was back to normal, I couldn't think of anywhere else I wanted pierced, and a tattoo seemed like too big a commitment.  Also, for some reason - despite it being months since I'd dip-dyed my hair and having had it trimmed several times since then and dyeing over it - the ends of my hair were still lighter than the rest.  And it no longer looked cool, it looked like what it was; a badly faded dye job.  So a haircut was on the cards.  My hair is very very straight and therefore tends to be incredibly difficult to style and particularly to volumise.  It needed a new lease of life and I decided a long-ish bob was the way to go.

As is always the way, when I washed and dried my hair on the morning I was getting it cut, it was the most cooperative it has been in ages.  I found myself looking in the mirror, stroking its length and thinking, "You're not so bad, maybe I could keep you after all..."  NO!  For one thing, I'd already paid for the haircut.  And for another, I was not going to let myself get dragged into the dangerous territory of hair nostalgia.  I'd been so excited by the idea of new hair, I refused to chicken out at the last minute.

And here it is!  A big change and it'll take some getting used to, but I think I like it.

What do you think?  Let me know in the comments!

21/09/13 - 'Cruel Summer' by James Dawson

If you're someone with detective tendencies and think you have any kind of skill at solving murder mysteries, I challenge you to get your hands on Cruel Summer by James Dawson.  Recently, I've started to think of myself as a right little Sherlock Holmes - minus Cumberbatch's sweeping coat and Downey Jr's cheeky confidence.  Either all murder mysteries are a little bit obvious or I really am something of a genius...but Dawson had me stumped right up until the big reveal.

A year after tragedy struck their little group in the form of their friend Janey's suicide, Ryan is looking forward to a relaxing catch-up with his friends from school at Katie's father's Spanish villa.  Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for their secluded sun-soaked paradise to become the setting for their very own horror movie nightmare as things start to unravel rapidly.

The best word I can think of to describe the experience of reading Cruel Summer is 'exhilarating'.  I read the whole thing in the time it took me to get to and from Birmingham by train, and my fellow passengers must have thought I was certifiably insane if they'd been watching me read.  My face couldn't hide my shock at each little twist (of which there are plenty), I was physically leaning forwards in my seat and devouring the book as quickly as possible, and often grinning like a loon at the brilliance of Dawson's writing.  The characters are utterly believable, right down to the way they speak and behave, and you immediately feel like one of their little gang.  Will good girl Katie and heartthrob Ben get back together?  Will wild child Alisha stay off the booze?  Who is Erin, Greg's wannabe-WAG girlfriend?  You'll find out all that and much more besides as secrets and lies come to light.  However, don't get too attached to anyone - James Dawson is not averse to a bit of a blood-bath.

Sometimes you read a book which just makes you want to write, which inspires you and makes you desperate to grab your laptop or a pen or a stick to scrape words into the sand - whatever's closest, just to do something creative.  And then you think, "With books like that in the world, is there any point me even bothering any more?" so you decide just to reread it again, feeling no motivation to compete with such excellence.  That's what Cruel Summer did for me.  It's probably the most exciting book I've read for a while and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone, to the point where I am tempted to buy an actual copy to go alongside my Kindle version for the sole purpose of easing the lending process to friends and family.

James Dawson will be in conversation with another fantastic YA author Maureen Johnson regarding 'The Gender Gap in YA Fiction' at Waterstones Piccadilly on October 7th - I'm pretty sure there are still tickets left, so you can find the details here if you scroll down.  If you're going, let me know and I'll see you there!  Please come and say hi, as I won't know a soul.

Do you love a good thriller as much as I do? Give me your recommendations in the comments!

12/09/13 - Skinny Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies

Now I'm home for the foreseeable future, I should be doing much more kitchen experimentation.  I mean, I have the house to myself all day and lots of time on my hands - no excuse not to, right?  Wrong.  My main stumbling block is that I'm lazy, and I tend to avoid exciting cooking or baking as it means more washing up than something simple...yes, I am that lazy.  But I'm determined to break out of that rut and here is the first step on that journey.  And these were a bit messy to make, so I threw myself in at the deep end.

The name is a bit of a mouthful - Skinny Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies.  I prefer 'Little Bites of Healthy(ish) Heaven'.  Peanut butter and chocolate can never be wrong and I always assumed, until now, that they could never be good for you.  While I have no idea about the calorific or fat content of these, they seem to be fairly healthy - nothing dodgy and no ingredients that are particularly bad for you on their own.  The use of banana as both binding agent and sweetener lightens it right up!

Again, I can't take credit for this recipe...I came across the original here, but I found myself adapting it as the process went along.  Adding a little milk here, having to compensate for not having enough honey there, you know the drill.  

These look a little different from the photos on the original recipe; I think I lost control of the food processor a little when I was blending my oats and ground them a little too fine - aah well, it doesn't really matter.  I replaced the chocolate chips on top for dried cranberries to add a little sharpness and to introduce a different texture.

They're not hard to make - made easier by the process of refridgerating them rather than baking - and they're really tasty!  Great to fulfill a little sweet-tooth craving mid-afternoon without feeling too guilty afterwards.  And the washing up is never as bad as I think it's going to be.

If you have any other healthy treat recipes, leave them down below or let me know if you think these might find their way into your kitchen!